Category: Media and Advertising

  • FCB Ulkacreates ‘EkChammachAmul Ghee’ campaign to promote the benefits of Amul Ghee

    FCB Ulkacreates ‘EkChammachAmul Ghee’ campaign to promote the benefits of Amul Ghee

    Ghee has its roots in ancient Ayurveda and has always been treated as the epitome of health with regard to it being good for bones, weight loss, reducing cholesterol etc. Ayurveda recognizes ghee as an essential part of a balanced diet. Ghee has always been a sacred and celebrated symbol of auspiciousness, nourishment and healing; especially in the daily rituals of cooking and worship.

     

    In today’s day and age, few consumers are aware of the health benefits of ghee. While most consumers are aware that Ghee brings about a unique taste and richness to food, only a few know that it is a good source of energy.

     

    Amul Ghee is the largest player with an established and preferred name in the ghee market.

     

    Ghee is made out of fresh milk from its dairies. It packs in goodness of milk in every spoon of ghee.

     

    ‘EkChammachAmul Ghee campaign talks not only about having one spoonful of ghee which will add taste to the food but also about the health benefits.

     

    Commenting on the campaign GCMMF Managing Director R S Sodhi said, “Repositioning the brand – Amul ghee, and the category itself on the platform of wellness has been our strategic focus for more than a decade. While ghee has always been an integral part of our culture and tradition since thousands of years, we feel that our younger generation should be informed about the intrinsic goodness of ghee. As pan-India brand leaders in the category, it our responsibility to ensure growth of branded, packaged segment within ghee market, since it ultimately benefits consumers.

     

    FCB Ulka Executive Creative Director Haresh Moorjani said, “As a nation of food lovers, we are always looking for that special ingredient that adds an extra something to our dishes.  Actually that special ingredient is as simple as a spoonful of Amul Ghee. The TVC talks about the virtues of this spoonful of Amul Ghee, adding an extra zing to food”.

     

    The film was aired on various GEC’s with a high decibel media plan. 

  • Isobar India hires Praveen Raj as creative director – West & South

    Isobar India hires Praveen Raj as creative director – West & South

    MUMBAI: Dentsu Aegis Network’s full-service digital agency Isobar India has roped in Praveen Raj as creative director – West & South.

     

    As part his new mandate, Raj will be responsible for Isobar’s creative teams in Mumbai and Bangalore.

     

    In his new role, Raj will report to Isobar group creative director Anish Varghese and will also be part of the Isobar creative council, which will include creative Varghese and Isobar India director – North Anadi Sah. The council will lead Isobar’s creative vision into 2016 and beyond.

     

    Isobar India managing director Shamsuddin Jasani said, “The creative wing of Isobar is the heart and soul of the agency and I am very happy that Praveen has joined us to strengthen an already strong creative team. I believe that the creative council will be able to take our work above and beyond global standards.”

     

    Speaking about his new role, Raj said, “Isobar has a very young and enthusiastic team and a roster of great brands to work with; not to forget the opportunities for collaboration with the extensive Dentsu Aegis Network agencies. So I’m looking forward to working closely with the team to build some serious creative chops and do outstanding work for our clients.”

     

    Varghese added, “Praveen is a seasoned professional. Besides his ideation and detailing expertise, he is a true blue marketer. He has hands-on experience in blending art with technology. And his stint with start-ups and Ogilvy will just be the elixir to boost our creative squad.”

     

    Prior to this, Raj was creative lead at AgencyDigi and was responsible for winning clients such as Axis Mutual Funds, HDFC Securities, and Enrich Salons & Academy. He has spent more than 13 years in advertising with a primary focus on digital media. Before joining AgencyDigi, he spent four years with OgilvyOne Worldwide fronting businesses for several top brands like Vodafone, Diageo, Emirates and Disney.

     

    During his three-year stint with Hungry & Foolish Intellectual Properties, Raj was involved in creating advertising for Kamasutra and Lenovo apart from crafting several other independent creative products.

  • Havas Media wins HolidayIQ’s Rs 30 crore media mandate

    Havas Media wins HolidayIQ’s Rs 30 crore media mandate

    MUMBAI: Havas Media Group India has won the integrated media mandate of HolidayIQ.com in a multi-agency pitch. The duties will include traditional, digital and mobile solutions. 

     

    The estimated size of the business is upwards of Rs 30 crore.

     

    The portal enables travellers to discover, plan holidays and share holiday experiences. HolidayIQ.com provides customised, relevant, information and insight son – places, hotels, sightseeing and transport to customers. 

     

    HolidayIQ founder and CEO Hari Nair said, “We believe in the science of holidays and Havas Media delivered an impressive scientific, strategic approach to the business, which was in sync with our objectives. Young, professional and passionate we look forward to working with this Havas Media team.”

     

    HolidayIQ.com CMO Diptakirti Chaudhuri added, “The recommendations from Havas Media had a good balance of data and content. Their deep understanding of the category and their thought leadership made them win this mandate.”

     

    Havas Media Group-India and South Asia CEO Anita Nayyar said, “It is a great win for us. HolidayIQ is a very meaningful brand in an extremely engaging category. Havas also has an entrepreneurial DNA, which allows us to understand the challenges and objectives of these clients better. Bangalore is an important market for us and we are seriously investing time and talent in expanding our operations here.”

     

    Havas Media Group India managing director Mohit Joshi added, “We are glad that our focused efforts and strategy towards acquiring the integrated media mandates of new age businesses is paying off. Our compelling value proposition is a clear winner in the market. We look forward to a great association.”

     

    The win comes on the back of Havas winning the integrated media business of BlueStone.com. Both these businesses will be handled by Havas Media office in Bangalore.

  • WPP Q3 revenue up 5.9% at ?2.927 billion

    WPP Q3 revenue up 5.9% at ?2.927 billion

    MUMBAI: UK-based advertising behemoth WPP reported a 5.9 per cent growth in revenues in Q3 2015 at ?2.927 billion.

     

    In US dollar basis, revenues fell 1.6 per cent to $4.533 billion, while it was up 17 per cent in euros to €4.075 billion. In Japanese yen, revenues were up 15.4 per cent to ?554 billion.

     

    The company’s third quarter constant currency revenue was up 7.9 per cent (like-for-like revenue up 4.6 per cent). Despitesoftening in the United Kingdom, WPP’s like-for-like revenue growth in the third quarter continued at similarly strong levels in the US.

     

    Net sales in Q3 stood at ?2.518 billion, which was up 4.2 per cent on a reported basis and 6.1 per cent in constant currency. Like-for-like net sales went up 3.3 per cent, compared to 2.3 per cent in the first half, partly the result of easier comparatives, with the gap compared to revenue growth less in the third quarter than the first half, as the scale of digital media purchases in media investment management and data investment management direct costs continued at a similar slightly lighter level to the second quarter.

     

    Nine months reported revenue was up 6.5 per cent at ?8.766 billion (approximately $13.4 billion).

     

    While the company’s nine months constant currency revenue was up 6.9 per cent, the nine months constant currency net sales were up 5.2 per cent.

     

    Operating margin for the nine months period were up 0.5 margin points in constant currency, 0.3 margin points in reported and targeted to be up 0.3 margin points in constant currency for full year in line with objective.

     

    WPP’s net new business in Q3 was at ?1.9 billion pounds, whereas for the first nine months it stood at ?3.312 billion, resulting in the number one position in all net new business tables. Results to date in the tsunami of largely United States based media investment management reviews have been highly satisfactory with major retentions and wins and limited losses, and with significant opportunities still to be decided, where we have relatively limited exposure.

     

    The company saw constant currency revenue growth in Q3 in all regions and business sectors, with particularly strong growth geographically in North America, the United Kingdom and Asia Pacific, Latin America, Africa & the Middle East and Central & Eastern Europe, and functionally in advertising and media investment management and sub-sectors direct, digital and interactive and specialist communications.

     

    WPP’s average net debt for the first nine months increased by ?403 million to ?3.436 billion compared to last year, at 2015 constant rates. This continued to reflect significant incremental net acquisition spend and share repurchases of ?374 million in the twelve months to 30 September, 2015, compared with the previous twelve months, more than offsetting the improvements in working capital over the same period.

  • Madison OOH re-structures top management team

    Madison OOH re-structures top management team

    MUMBAI: Madison Communications’ outdoor arm Madison OOH has re-structured its senior management team, which will come into effect from 1 November, 2015.

     

    As a part of this re-structuring, MOMS COO Dipankar Sanyal had been promoted to Platinum Outdoor CEO. Sanyal has over 20 years of experience with outdoor and has been with the agency for the last 11 years. Before joining Madison, he worked with Vantage, Out-Sel, Portland, Zenith Media and RK Swamy.

     

    Replacing Sanyal as MOMS COO will be MOMS west & south vice president Jayesh Yagnik. With over 15 years experience, Yagnik has been with MOMS for 12 years now. He joined the agency as an assistant manager and gradually rose to the top.

     

    Stepping into Yagnik’s shoes as MOMS west & south vice president will be current MOMS west general manager Neeraj Ved. He has been with the agency for almost 10 years and joined as a management trainee.

     

    MOMS north & east vice president Krishnendu Ghosh has been upped as Madison OOH national buying head. Ghosh has total outdoor experience of 15 years, out of which 13 have been with Madison.

     

    Madison IES general manager Saumen Roy has been promoted as VP of the agency. Roy has been with the agency for the last five years and has been driving it ever since. Before joining Madison, he worked with JWT, Ogilvy, 360 degrees and Linterland.

     

    Madison OOH CEO Soumitra Bhattacharyya said, “At Madison, we are a meritocracy and strongly believe in recognising and rewarding our home grown talent. The strong leadership team we have now put in place will help Madison OOH delight its existing clients by establishing new bench marks in service and quality standards and achieve aggressive growth as a by product.”

     

    The Madison OOH team will be further empowered with Madison Media & OOH group CEO Vikram Sakhuja, who took charge from 19 October.

  • Snapdeal names Aircel’s Anup Vikal as CFO

    Snapdeal names Aircel’s Anup Vikal as CFO

    MUMBAI: Snapdeal has appointed Anup Vikal as the chief financial officer (CFO).

     

    A seasoned finance professional Vikal brings over 23 years of experience in finance, strategy and corporate governance across multiple industry sectors.

     

    Prior to his appointment at Snapdeal, he served as CFO at Aircel, where he was responsible for building business through revenue growth, implementing massive cost optimisation, restructuring of debt and capital, improving the Credit Rating of the company as well as interfacing with the government, TRAI and other authorities. 

     

    Before joining Aircel, Vikal was the group CFO and head of strategy and IT at InterGlobe Enterprises. Earlier, he also served as director and head of finance shared services for Colt Technology for three years and Bharti Airtel where he headed the finance division for close to seven years.

     

    Snapdeal co-founder and CEO Kunal Bahl said, “We are very excited to have Anup on-board. His wealth of experience in building and executing the financial infrastructure in companies across complex large organisations in the country will further strengthen our leadership team.”

     

    Vikal added, “In the last few years, Snapdeal has emerged as a leader within the e-commerce and tech space and I look forward to joining the young and energetic Snapdeal family. E-commerce is a dynamic and interesting space to work with and my focus will be to ensure we are financially well positioned yet nimble so that we can continue to create value for our customers, sellers, investors and employees.”

     

    He will be based out of Snapdeal’s Gurgaon office.

  • WPP inks global partnership with Acquia

    WPP inks global partnership with Acquia

    MUMBAI: WPP has inked a global partnership with digital experience company Acquia to offer clients a full-service digital marketing and technology solution.

     

    The new partnership brings together WPP’s existing Acquia partners – which include Globant, Hogarth, Mirum, Possible, Rockfish, VML and Wunderman – under the umbrella of the WPP-Acquia Alliance.

     

    The WPP-Acquia Alliance is the world’s largest Acquia Certified partner and has two Acquia MVPs. Its members will draw on Acquia software, training and certification, collaborate on new business pitches, and share project resources.

     

    Under the agreement, WPP agencies will provide creative, UX and development resources to Acquia clients, while Acquia will provide its open cloud platform to the WPP-Acquia Alliance to deliver projects. The WPP-Acquia Alliance is part of WPP’s Technology Partnership Program, an initiative led by chief digital officer and chief strategy officer Scott Spirit to coordinate and promote the Group’s relationships with key providers of marketing technology services.

     

    Acquia provides an open cloud platform for building, delivering and optimising digital experiences. Organisations rely on the Acquia Platform to unify content, community and commerce. The company harnesses the open source content management system Drupal, which was created by Acquia founder and CTO Dries Buytaert. Drupal is used by many of the world’s largest organisations. The Acquia Platform provides a multi-site management solution, continuous support, and an environment for developing and maintaining Drupal sites.

     

    WPP chief digital officer Scott Spirit said, “The growth of the ‘API economy’ is changing marketing, and clients require the ability to integrate existing technologies, data sources and media into a central platform. WPP is committed to working closely with technology leaders, and the creation of the WPP-Acquia Alliance gives us an open source digital experience practice at a time when the market is growing rapidly.”

     

    “We began working with WPP agencies five years ago, and today our combined teams are working together on five continents, and unlocking the creative freedom to launch amazing digital experiences for their clients. The combined WPP-Acquia team, and the disruptive business they’re building, will deliver transformative outcomes to those organizations that are thinking ahead to a mobile-first, browserless world,” added Acquia CEO Tom Erickson.

  • Mindshare launches emerging markets growth hub – FAST

    Mindshare launches emerging markets growth hub – FAST

    MUMBAI: Mindshare APAC has launched FAST Hub (Future Adaptive Specialist Team) in Singapore, supported by EDB, to enable brands to benefit from the growth opportunities appearing in emerging markets.

     

    FAST brings together the best of WPP as well as industry leading companies and products including GroupM, Kantar, WPP Data Alliance, CrayonData and Jivox, to build sector specific solutions to enable marketers to use real time insights to drive real time marketing and media actions, including hyper-targeted content creation and distribution.

     

    The launch is a response to the increase in data availability and the parallel rise in data and technology led marketing opportunities such as programmatic and performance advertising that leverage this data.

     

    Targeting the consumer packaged goods (CPG), banking, consumer healthcare, telecoms and automotive sectors, FAST will allow clients to adopt and implement adaptive marketing strategies covering programmatic, performance marketing, customised data alliances, digital analytics, data management platforms (DMP) and real-time marketing.

     

    The Singapore FAST hub is anticipated to grow to a 63 members outfit over the course of the next three years, and the six teams will lead the product development for this suite of services for all growth and emerging markets for Mindshare’s clients, wherever they are in the world.

     

    Mindshare Asia Pacific COO Gowthaman Ragothaman said, “The industry is still grappling with a deluge of data. We want to help simplify this for our clients and provide them a bespoke solution that solves their business problems. The role big data plays for a CPG company is totally different to the influence it has on the banking sector or auto industry. Our ability to provide customisation is one of the key differentiators for FAST.”

     

    Mindshare AMEA, Russia & Emerging Markets chairman & CEO Ashutosh Srivastava added, “The talent to drive these services is scarce, but Singapore provides FAST with a thriving ecosystem for learning and development. Together with EDB’s support, this will immensely benefit Mindshare and our clients, help brand marketers find more effective and profitable opportunities for growth, and also develop young Singaporean talent for the data-driven marketing world. For the young talent, this is a great opportunity to work together with some of the brightest minds in the business, and do the best work of their career.”

     

    Commenting on this partnership, Singapore Economic Development Board assistant managing director Kelvin Wong said, “When you look at how mobile, social and e-commerce are changing the behaviour of Asia’s consumers, it is clear that brand owners are turning to their agencies with a very different set of needs. Mindshare, by centralising a suite of data, technology and domain-centric capabilities, is well poised to serve global clients who require specialised expertise in the growth and emerging markets. We welcome the establishment of Mindshare’s FAST hub, and look forward to building Singapore’s digital marketing ecosystem from strength to strength.”

  • Dentsu acquires French cross-activation agency ZoneFranche

    Dentsu acquires French cross-activation agency ZoneFranche

    MUMBAI: Dentsu Aegis Network has acquired the Paris based cross-activation agency ZoneFranche SAS, which has strengths in experiential marketing.

     

    Founded in 2004, ZoneFranche has steadily captured an increasing share of the growing activation market, and is currently one of the leading agencies with a focus on consumer brand experience and experienced value.

     

    The company also offers a wide range of communications services including digital, mobile, advertising and promotion solutions that leverage social media, customer relationship management (CRM), and other marketing activities to enhance the purchasing experience. These innovative, high-quality services have earned it high praise from prominent companies in France as well as in other countries.

     

    Post-acquisition, ZoneFranche will become part of experiential marketing agency psLIVE, one of the Dentsu Group’s specialist brands. During the next 12 months, psLIVE will be realigned as MKTG, the Group’s lifestyle marketing brand headquartered in New York and one of its nine global network brands.

     

    As was reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com, in India Dentsu recently acquired Brian Tellis’ Fountainhead Entertainment, which will be merged with psLIVE.